Stan and David's Wedding Reception

Several months ago, I was honored to attend my cousin Stan and cousin-in-law David's 1.5 Wedding Anniversary celebration. Oh yes, 1.5 years is the new "in" celebration date! However, I went into a time warp and never posted about the party...but with the Prop 8 ruling this week, I felt it was a great time to celebrate love and equality.

In 2001, Stan and David met in a Bay Area church. In October 2008, during the too brief window in California where same-sex couple could legally marry, they got married in Alameda county. In May, they had a celebration with their Southern California based family and friends.

Stan and David were treated to JustJenn's red velvet cupcakes with cut-out hearts at our 2009 mochi making, and they hired her to make the cupcake favors for the party. Aren't they pretty?

I bought these 3x3x3 clear boxes for the favors.

Some of my awesome cousins. If you guessed their ages, you would be off by decades. Seriously. Did you know I have 16 first-cousins on my dad's side and another 14 on my mom's side? I'm really lucky to have a large and loving family!

David's family came from Texas, and Stan's best friends gave a toast to the couple!

My dad (left) and his brothers and sister. Unfortunately, we have lost an aunt and uncle, including Stan's father.

My cousin Todd & Stacy's beautiful kids...they were excellent cupcake delivery young ladies at the party too.

David with friends and family. Stan and David aired a great slide show covering their childhood, family and their loving relationship.

Stan hanging out with my aunt and uncle. The party was at Ca'Brea Restaurant in Los Angeles. The service and food was very good, I would recommend this rustic Italian restaurant.

My cousin and her husband came from Vermont for the party!

To Stan and David, Wishing you many more years of happiness and love! And to the many gay and lesbian couples out there in California, may you too have many happy weddings and family receptions! - Love, Cousin Mary

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Coffee Jello & Coffee-Break Muffins (Wake Up Care Package)

Question: How can you help friends turn from night people into early morning people?
Answer: Caffeine.

I have some friends who switched their work schedule and now start really early in the morning. By the second day of the new schedule, it looked like everyone just got off a transatlantic flight and had some major jetlag.

So, I made a Wake Up Care Package. Everything with sugar. Everything with caffeine. That's how I roll. Well, that's how I gift.

I made Coffee Jello. Since I first created and posted this recipe, it has been much clicked on and made. And I must say, It. Is. Fantastic. If you are a coffee drinker, you'll like it.

I also made Dorie Greenspan's Coffee-Break Muffins.

The only problem with this care package is that as I was preparing it for delivery, I kept eating the end pieces of the Coffee Jello and had to try one of the muffins (quality control people, quality control). But I don't drink caffeine so I got so. freaking. wired. My heart was racing and I was talking a mile a minute. I already talk fast, so I was like that "vintage" FedEx commercial guy.

Then I got a big headache and remembered why I don't have caffeine. Anyway, make these treats for a friend (who is accustomed to caffeine) as an edible wake up call.

P.S. Come back on Saturday as I lurch toward my 40th birthday. I'll be 39 8/12 and I'll be having another giveaway!

Recipes:
Coffee Jello (blog entry and printable recipe)

Coffee-Break Muffins
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup strong coffee, cooled
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled (1 stick)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (I added)

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Prep 12 muffin cups.
2. In a big bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, espresso powder, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
3. Stir in the brown sugar, making sure there are no lumps.
4. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk the coffee, melted butter, egg, and vanilla until combined. (I used Starbucks VIA (one packet). Since the coffee needs to be cool, I used about 1/3 cup boiling water, mixed til dissolved, and filled it with 2/3 cup cold water.)
5. Add mini chocolate chips. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and, with a whisk, gently but quickly stir to blend; don't overmix.
6. Scoop into muffins. I use an ice cream scoop.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a pick comes out clean. Transfer pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

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Capital Seafood Dim Sum, Monterey Park

Happy Graduation Alison!

Celebrating high school graduation of Alison (left) with her cousins, Jessica and Dominic!

My friend Jessica treated her cousin to a dim sum brunch recently. Dim Sum and Los Angeles County can only mean a drive to the San Gabriel Valley. We went to Capital Seafood in Monterey Park. It shares a parking lot of several other Chinese stores and a big Ranch 99 supermarket. There may be a billion people in China, but I think half of them were fighting for parking in that lot. Hint: Look for street parking around the block.

As with most Chinese restaurants serving dim sum, they ain't messing around. Service is fast and it's crowded. We waited about 30 minutes for our party of five to get seated.

Capital Seafood was recommended for dim sum served on carts by Jonathan Gold (yes, he answered my tweet! How freakin' awesome is that?). I really like Elite for non-cart dim sum.

There were only five of us and we were super hungry so I didn't get photos of everything! But it was yummy...although I never found the Chinese broccoli cart. Oh well, we finished off the meal at Yogurtland!

Capital Seafood
755 W Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 282-3318

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Cupcake Camp OC 2010

Sunday, JustJenn and I loaded up her mini-van for our own Mobile Truck. This wasn't Kogi, but it did have cupcakes and a kid's car seat. We were rockin' as we drove and drove down to Irvine for the first CupcakeCampOC!

JustJenn brought dozens of sleeping baby cupcakes...a delicious Ovaltine cupcake is beneath this sleeping baby.

The assortment of cute "Most Childhood Inspired" cupcakes ready for judging (both pro and amateur)

The professional bakeries set up their displays around the room, and the amateur cupcakes were brought out every 30 minutes to other tables. You were given tickets to get three pro cupcakes and unlimited amateur cupcakes. And damn, people attacked the amateur cupcakes. JustJenn and I brought ours out at 4:30 and in 30 seconds they were GONE. It was pure madness.

A panel of judges ate a zillion entries for the professional and amateur entries. I didn't enter the contest, just donated cupcakes. However, JustJenn came in second in the amateur division in the Childhood Inspired category. Awesome!

See all those people? It got even more crowded this this! Lots of people have the love for the cupcake. And the best part? The event raised a lot of money to fight human trafficking. Thanks to all the volunteers and organizers who made the event a success! Can't wait for the Los Angeles Cupcake Camp!

I made Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. It's an Ina Garten recipe, and the Barefoot Contessa always has great recipes. And notice the fun silver dragees on top...shipped to me out of the forbidden area of Los Angeles...thanks Mary!!

Recipe:
Barefoot Contessa Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
(I did not put chopped peanuts on my cupcakes)

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Gingered Carrot Cookies - Tuesdays with Dorie

Gingered Carrot Cookies

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Natalia of gatti fili e farina chose Gingered Carrot Cookies on page 162 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I skipped the coconut (of course) and selected dried cranberries instead of raisins. I feel these didn't have enough carrot flavor. Perhaps I should have used the larger shreds of carrots (I used the finely shredded size of the grater).

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Recipe:
Natalia's gatti fili e farina blog or
Page 162 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

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Last cupping session with Jordan!

Unfortunately Jordan Barber is heading back to the states soon, so tomorrow wednesday the 4th will be the last open summer cupping session. Please drop by at 16:00 hour. We have heaps of beautiful and fruity summercoffees fresh from the roaster and ready to hit the spots on Your tongue. (La Esmeralda Special, Kieni, Gatina)

Jordan you will be missed. We look forward to coming and visit You.

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Coffee With Jeff 8-1-10

In this show we visit The Manchester Gallery, the first appearance of The Java Player, I advertise my first book and much more.

Tags: comedy, machester gallery, java players, coffee

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